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A radio documentary by Jim Henderson on the Manapouri power station construction project and the men and women from around the world who are working on it in remote Fiordland.
By the end of 1969 two huge steel arteries over 100 miles long will pump electric power from Manapouri to Bluff.
The first steel from Japan has arrived for the power station, by rail from Dunedin. A Māori steel worker from Whangarei, Ray Steeply [?] explains how he is "giving the Pākēha a hand" with the Japanese steel. He comments on the cold, which he says he has acclimatised to, now that he has married a local girl and has a family of two. He says quite a few Northland Māori have "found a white girl' down here and settled down.
Over 360 power pylons have to be built between Manapouri and Bluff. An unnamed manager is heard using a car radio telephone to call Ross Burns about the Forest Hills engineering building at Winton. At the foundations for one of the pylons, linesmen are interviewed as they toast bacon sandwiches over an open fire. A female cook at one of the camps talks about her work. The day's cookhouse menu is read by a male cook. A Scots cook talks about the 24 hour meal service they provide.
A 27 mile new road had to be built into Fiordland to bring the pylons in to carry the power. Trees are still being cleared. The Bluffs [Borland] road climbs 3,000 feet through bush above the Grebe Valley. A man talks about how the dangerous road was built. At Wolf Flats, 3,500 feet above sea level a bulldozer is heard at work.
Les Patterson of Timaru is interviewed about his work for Robinsons who are putting the road through [Wilmot Pass.] He is a D8 operator and comments about the work, pay and conditions at the work camp. Actuality of the hub-bub in the wet canteen at West Arm, Lake Manapouri.
Jim Henderson describes descending into the tunnel at West Arm. Two tunnellers are interviewed as they drive a mile down inside the mountain, passing large trucks carrying tunnelling spoil up to the surface. They are an American named "Stu" and "Frank", who was born in Palmerston North and started tunnelling in 1936 in Kaikoura railway tunnels. Tunnellers from all over the world are working at Manapouri. The type of gneiss rock they are working is described. In a huge machine hall generators from Germany, transformers from Italy and other equipment from Britain and Japan are being assembled. Stu and Frank describe the hall and the work being done there. They both explain why they enjoy their underground work.
At Deep Cove, 500 people are living in the wilderness - many on board the ship 'Wanganella' moored in the fiord. The policeman for the community is former heavyweight wrestler Ray Clark. He comments on how well the multicultural workers get along. He has only had to use his jail cell three times in four years. Morrie Hartley, safety officer; Bill Witty and Brian Griffin, trade unionist tunnellers comment briefly on the tough work conditions and the willing work force.
Sally Williams and Heather Marshall, nurses on board the 'Wanganella' comment on how conditions in the tunnel affect the whole community, and the compassion they feel for the men.